And consumer sentiment soured more than expected. The University of Michigan/Reuters consumer-sentiment index dropped to 64.6in a mid-July reading from 70.8 at the end of June. Economists had expected a more modest drop to 70.

Chevronissued a profit warninglate Thursday, saying second-quarter earnings would be hit by a sharp decline inUS refining margins and that any benefits from higher oil prices were largely offset by a weaker dollar.

Adding to the pressure on the energy sector, oil prices fell below $60 a barrel.

General Motors announced that it's out of bankruptcymuch sooner than expected— the process has taken just 40 days, even faster than rival Chrysler's 42-day whirlwind trip in and out of Chapter 11.

The new GM, 61-percent owned by the government, will be much leaner, with only its strongest brands, including Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick.

AIG is looking for the government's permisssion to resume paying out retention bonuses, on the heels of a warning from Citi that AIG's equity could be worthless. AIG shares fell more than 4 percent premarket.

Techs will again be in the spotlight following news that Cisco s cutting between 1,500 to 2,000 jobs.

Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating on the hardware sector to "attractive" from "neutral," citing the potential for the sector to outperform in the typically strong second half.

Among those upgraded were: Dell , Arrow Electronics, Hewlett-Packard and Seagate Technology. The analysts also raised their price target on Apple .

But they cut their ratings IBM and Western Digital.

Alcoa shares were under the gun once again as the company's better-than-expected earnings report couldn't outweight worries over an expected weakness in construction likely to hurt the aluminum giant.